.
Diara and Rénin had the vistor bracketed, chatting happily to him with glowing, fangirlish eyes. Even Moire had emerged from the water, mostly. She was kneeling waist-deep near the shore, gazing up at him.
Their enthusiasm for a mortal man was a stark contrast to Grandmother’s cold view of such beings. I guess having a mortal for a father made for a big difference in attitude.
They had all resumed their raiments, in reasonably opaque forms, which made me wonder if there was some sort of etiquette for how much skin to show off, and to whom. Or maybe it was a time of day thing. Naturally, Mother hadn’t taught me yet, since I either can’t make a raiment or I’m on the growth schedule of a full fairy, leaving me years away from having one. Lesser fairies and half-fairies of the normal half-mortal variety get theirs earlier, from what I understand.
The girls were clearly intent on monopolizing his attention, but when I landed on the shore behind him, he held up his hands in a clear ‘stop’ gesture to them, then turned toward me.
He bowed deeply. “Your Highness, I am Miröen Fairling, a traveling mage.”
I tried to keep the surprise off my face. ‘Fairling’ is a word that means a child born to a mortal woman impregnated by a fairy. A fairling is a mortal, not a half-fairy. Half-fairies are born to fairy mothers.
He saw my reaction anyway, and smiled mildly. “It is a custom here in Relador, Your Highness. A mortal begotten by a fairy receives certain compensations and protections from his clan if the mother has no husband.”
I remembered that Reladorians have surnames even if they are commoners. Lacking a mortal father, Miröen simply used ‘Fairling’ as his surname. Did his answer mean that the surname ‘Fairling’ was a condition for receiving the assistance?
“Are you staying with us a while this time, Miröen?” Diara wanted to know. From her tone, it was pretty obviously a plea for him to answer ‘yes’, but he gave her an apologetic head shake.
“I’ve only come on an errand,” he told her. “If you girls can pardon me for ignoring you this time, I promise to pay you extra attention on my next visit.”
“It needs to be soon!” Rénin retorted with a little girl pout. I couldn’t believe the way these two women were acting. Aren’t you two like, decades older than me?
He tousled said ‘little girl’s hair. “Of course, child.”
It was everything I could do to suppress the urge to roll my eyes.
Turning back to me, Miröen grew an appraising look. As he held my eyes, I felt something similar to the breeze-like sensation I felt before, back at the school, in Ged’s office. The sensation was somehow related to my fairy sense, not the sensations of my skin.
I heard Durandal’s voice in my head. He’s making use of one of those Treasures, My Lady.
I’ve attempted to ‘speak’ to Durandal in my head, and found the results are very hit-and-miss. He seems to be able to sense my attitude about things and make reasonable guesses about what I am thinking, but he does not hear words that I am not physically speaking.There must be a way to do it, considering my grandmother can speak to me in my head without using her voice. I just haven’t figured it out, yet.
So I couldn’t ask him to be more specific while Miröen inspected me.
With a frown, I cleared my voice. “Um… Good sir…”
He chuckled softly, “Your pardon, Your Highness. I found myself quite struck by your beauty.”
My ass, my Robert side wanted to retort, but naturally, such words cannot come out of Tiana’s mouth. I gave him a smile and a curtsey, instead.
“It seems you already know my identity, Mr. Miröen, so I shall be informal. I am Tiana Pendor of the High Forest, a knight serving King Owen of Orestania.”
He cocked an eyebrow, growing a mild smile. “Knight? You don’t style yourself a Princess?”
I’ve been wondering about that, too, Durandal chimed in. Many have been calling you ‘highness’. Which is it?
I cleared my throat again, then answered both of them. “I am not… accustomed to calling myself a princess. I have lived my life up until now as a noble daughter and a knight. Also, the task I am currently pursuing is a responsibility to the king I serve, so I am in active service and should introduce myself as his knight.”
Of course, the truth was, I called myself that way out of habit. I wasn’t ready to start calling myself a princess yet.
With a nod, Miröen declared, “I understand, Your Highness.”
“Will you eat breakfast with us, Miröen?” Rénin asked hopefully. Her eyes pleaded with him.
He smiled to her and nodded. “I must speak with the captain, so certainly I shall. Shall we go, ladies?”
I shook my head as Rénin grabbed his hand and rose into the air, but then blinked in surprise as he easily floated up with her without any word or action. When Ceria casts [Wind Porter], she has to do chant a level two incantation, and that’s to fly something else while she stays on the ground. Miröen had apparently cast an equivalent spell without a chant, just like a fairy, easily flying into the air as if it were a natural act for him.
Fairy magic is often chantless– all chantless spells that mortals do, like [Fairy Light], are actually bits of Fairy Magic that humans have learned how to imitate– but this wasn’t level-one magic like that. This was a much higher level. If it was in fact fairy magic, it was at a level mortals can’t naturally perform, even if they are fairlings.
Diara followed, then Moire was grabbing my hand for a quick tug, saying, “come on!”, before letting go and taking off as well, growing dragonfly wings as she did it that were similar to a certain pixie. Speaking of whom, Kiki was suddenly present, following her.
With a shake of my head at the sudden exodus, I grew my own wings and followed.
# # #
Serera wasn’t overly enthusiastic at the new arrival, but she tolerated the disruption without saying anything while half of her crew forgot their breakfast and crowded him. He was clearly a local celebrity of some kind, but I didn’t have a clue as to why. Nor about why he had shown up. He was acting like it was a casual visit, but he’d clearly said he had business.
After they had worn themselves down a bit, they reluctantly let him go, and he did draw the captain aside for a private consultation.
My hypersensitive ears were unable to hear a word of it, so it was clear that [Realm of Silence] or something similar was in operation.
Breakfast was another vegetarian affair– or so I though until they brought out a large monster beetle, roasted and presented in the shell, on a big, rough wooden platter. I passed on my share of it with a stiff smile and opted for more berries and nut butter instead. They were serving them with a flatbread that was almost like a crepe, in which to roll them up. The result was a very tasty meal, actually.
“We shall be on our way to the capital as soon as we finish,” Serera informed me and Feraen while we ate. The two full fairies and I had ended up seated together. I think it was mostly due to mutually distancing ourselves from Miröen’s gaggle of fangirls.
“The capital… does that mean Royses or Tëan Tír?” I wondered.
“We must see the Legate in Royses in order to apply for travel seals for admission to Tëan Tír.”
“In order to apply?” I asked, a little shocked. “I have to go there immediately. Fele Serera, isn’t there some way…”
“It isn’t something I have the authority to authorize,” she interrupted in an annoyed tone. I noticed Miröen shoot her a sharp glance. She immediately softened her tone. “Forgive me, Your Highness.”
Once again, I found myself wondering what exactly Miröen was. Serera had reacted as if he were a superior. And I still wasn’t sure what exactly the man had been doing when he ‘greeted’ me down at the beaver pond.
“I’m not bothered by it, if that’s how the rules are,” I told her. “But I am in a great hurry. I would like to know the reason I can’t go directly. I must speak to my grandfather as soon as possible.”
“Nobody can, unless they possess a travel seal,” she said. “And you haven’t shown me that you have such a thing. Do you?”
“I… am not sure what you mean.”
She nodded. “I suspected as much. I’ve never heard of you returning to this country, before this, so I didn’t consider it likely you would have one. Relador is not an easy place for outsiders to travel, Your Highness. The land is covered in powerful spells to confuse and lead travelers astray. It forms a critical part of our national defense.”
I wondered if she should really be telling me this. I was an officer of a foreign power after all. But perhaps she was thinking of me as a princess of Fairie?
“So, a seal would allow me to travel without confusion?”
She nodded again. “A seal, or a guide who carries one. Travel to Tëan Tír is more restricted than travel to Royses, which I can guide you to.”
After thinking for a bit, I said, “I understand, My Lady.”
With a relieved smile and a forward tip of the head, she replied, “I’m happy you understand, Your Highness. I was concerned about what I should do if you refused to cooperate.”
After we finished eating, Serera wasted no time. I thought it would be a big deal for the captain to suddenly leave her unit, requiring her to give out many orders and sort out many last minute details. But, of course, my military experience was with a human army. I don’t know if she had already taken care of all of this before breakfast, or if it was just different with fairies, but she simply set down her plate, stood up from the tumbled stones where she had sat while eating, straightened her sword belt and told us it was time to go.
